The Hurricane Heist (DVD) : Review

Film

With a plot that sounds like it could be a lot of fun, and action, with a group of thieves attempting to rob the U.S. Treasury, The Hurricane Heist has all the promises of non-stop action. But, that’s as far as it goes.

The abysmal execution of the plot is evident from the start, checking all the checkboxes on it’s plummet to the lowly depths of a straight to home video release. Yet, even if one could suspend disbelieve to the utmost extent of one’s abilities, the terrible visual effects, plot holes, and total disregard for any reality, will soon snatch that last piece of remaining imagination away.

The action filled synopsis does give hope, but once you realise there is not much hope, you either relegate yourself to watching sub-standard nonsense, or move on and watch something else.

As for rewatch value, there is none. Unless you’re a film studies lecturer, and you really need to show your class what not to do.

Really, give this one a miss.

Disc

Overall, this is a an average disc technically. The video is slightly lacking, and navigation menu rather pathetic. Add to this a rather awful main feature, and one would do best to avoid this disc completely.

The Hurricane Heist is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.

Video

Video is encoded at a fair average bitrate, with this ranging from high to mediocre, depending on scenes. The overall encoding could have been higher, however there are no visible artefacts on-screen, however edges do look slightly sharpened at times.

Overall, the colour grade does lack vivid colours, likely due to the fact that the film is depicting grey skies and bad weather, however some detail is lost in darker scenes, and finer details in general could have been slightly better. Given that this is a DVD disc, this could be forgiven for the smallest of objects, but all the same, the video does feel slightly lacking.

Audio

Audio is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with a stereo downmix option available. The audio is encoded at a high average bitrate.

Dialogue is clear via the centre speaker, with a surprising amount of use made of the surround channels, and LFE.

Navigation

The main menu is simple, and easy to follow with text labels to play the main feature, scene selection, and setup. The menu has a motion background showing some clips from the main feature, and with accompanying music.

The scene selection sub-menus are terrible, with each containing ten large yellow numbers, for a total of twenty chapters. These are just the yellow numbers, no thumbnail, no label, nothing. One wonders why the disc creators even bothered with this, as almost anything provided by the simplest set-top or software player would be so much better. Seriously, this look as if they were told they must put a scene selection option on the disc, so did the bare minimum possible.

The setup menu is almost just as sparse, offering text options to choose between Dolby Surround or Dolby Stereo for the audio track. More functional than the scene selection menus, but this too can be covered far better via the hardware or software of the viewers respective player.

Bonus Features

There are no bonus features on the disc, not even the usual trailers that autoplay at the beginning of many discs.

Packaging

Packaging is the standard DVD jewel case, with a poster on the front. The back of the packaging has a short synopsis, and some stills from the main feature. There are also the usual technical symbols and information provided.

 

By Andrew Germishuys

Founder of SAMDB | Actor | Armourer | Tech Enthusiast With over two decades in the film industry, I'm a seasoned actor and skilled armourer. I hold numerous certifications in acting and filmmaking, complemented by degrees and diplomas in IT and technology, giving me a unique blend of creative and technical expertise. When I'm not on set or in the workshop, you'll find me immersed in the world of gaming and VR, fuelling my passion for cutting-edge technology. Connect with me: X / Twitter Facebook Instagram Mastodon Threads Explore my work on SAMDB IMDb